Hello, I'm Rose Putnam.

I'm the president of the friends of the firm Octagon barn.

We are out here in Gage Town The Thumb Octagon Barn is 101 years old.

There's additional historical buildings here, along with additional buildings that we have added.

And we'd like to have you take a look.

Our tours began here in the barn.

We'd like to share a story in the history of the owners of the barn.

These are James and Cora Purty, who built the barn.

They started building it in 1922.

It was completed in 1924.

It's a very unique barn, Mr. Purdy wasn't a typical farmer.

He was a banker.

He was the president of the State Savings Bank in Gage Town.

He saw this plan.

He got it, brought it back and had the Monroe brothers built this building for him.

This is pretty referred to it as his air castle.

He had the ability to pay for it and built it.

I'm standing in the arena in the center of the arena, in the barn.

The barn is quite unique.

It is 70ft tall.

As you look up.

It is 102ft wide on each side.

And the arena is 42ft.

This is a very unique barn.

As you can see.

this arena is used for special events.

We have barn dances here.

Weddings.

Also for our school tours and daily tours.

In the loft area You will see railings that were not original to the building, but it helps for the displays of farm equipment.

We also have many artifacts from different stages of farm life The loft was originally used to store loose hay.

You will see a long side of the ventilation system are three openings.

That is where the hay would be pitched into the majors.

We are now in the lower area of the barn.

We consider this our dairy processing area.

Mr. Purdy does not have dairy cows.

He raised black Angus cattle for beef.

This area has something special, you know.

We have cows that the kids are able to milk.

Her name is Earlene.

She is a Michigan cow.

One of the unique items that we have here at the barn is a dog treadmill.

This was powered by a Saint Bernard to churn butter.

Oh, let's say this is up.

This is a milk can that used to put the milk in after they milked the cows, We are now at the Purdy house.

Mr. Purdy has a house built.

It finished in 1922.

This home is an Arts and Crafts style home.

It is very unusual to find one like this out on a farm.

It's very fancy.

Mrs. Purdy wanted it... Mr. Purdy gave it to her.

A special feature of the Purdy home is this porch French term for it is a “porte cochere ”.

The reason that it was special is when local visitors would come out in their buggies and get out.

They would be protected from the elements from the rain and the snow by this porch.

We are now in another original building.

This garage on the property right next to the house.

Mr. Purdy had a car, so he built the garage.

What we have here is a 1929 Dodge, which would have been similar to something that Mr. Purdy would have owned at the time.

Also in the garage, we have something that may have been on the farm at the time, and it is a carriage from the 1830s.

We were at the powerhouse that Mr. Purdy built back in 1922 to power both the house and the barn.

There is a steam boiler in the building that was powered with blocks of peat that came from Mud Lake, which is being kind.

The property here that did not create enough BTUs.

So later was a 32 Delco battery system was added.

And so this was important part of this property.

Also on site, we have a sawmill building that has an operating sawmill during our events, with a huge blade on it.

And along the side of the building is a museum that has a lot of information about the lumbering industry.

Also, on our 26 acre site, we have buildings that we have added.

We were very fortunate to get a one room school house from Sebewaing, which we brought here and put on site, and then many local people had artifacts to give us.

We were going to build a general store, which became the one room school museum.

So these two are important for our 501 C3 that we can educate children.

Some of the regular things that happen in the schoolhouse.

The kids are given a chalkboard that they can write on to experience that.

They also put a potato in the stove that is in the schoolhouse.

It keeps it warm and that was considered hot.

Lunch.

Couple of other things they do with the schoolhouse is they're able to pump water from the outside pump, and they also bring in cottonwood.

That was used in the stone to heat the building during the winter months.

(Bell Clanging) The one room country museum has a lot of children's toys, different things that were used at schools all over the state of Michigan.

see?

I just Also on the property, we have additional buildings.

We have a grain elevator with an attached gristmill.

We also have a cider mill.

We also have a blacksmith shop and a sugar shack.

These buildings are open for tours, And we do demonstrations during our special event days.

Well, that's your tour for the TV.

There are so much more to see.

As you can see, this is a huge place.

There is a lot of opportunities for volunteers We are open May through September.

Please visit our website or Facebook for more information.